A study led by Leeds University found that the majority of sex workers are pretty darn satisfied with their work, over 1/3 have college degrees, while over 70% have worked in healthcare, education, or non-profit work.

Do you remember the mass face-sitting to protest the porn ban in the UK? Well, the sex worker that organized that, Charlotte Rose, is now running for a seat in parliament. Her platform endorses the Swiss model.

This bill, which would have restricted where street workers in Auckland, New Zealand could work, has been dropped, with Greens MP Jan Logie wisely pointing out what so few people in government seem to realize: there are already laws in place making crimes illegal:

“Our job is to try and create laws that will work, and that aren’t duplicating other laws, and that won’t just tie up the time of Parliament, unnecessarily.”

She added that the bill would simply have been a return to making working conditions more unsafe for sex workers, not less.

On that note, despite what the government said about not legalizing prostitution, here we have yet another official in India talking about legalization so sex workers can access legal protections against sexual assault.

The crackdown on the sex industry in Dongguan, China has done nothing for the city’s already struggling economy.

Remember Terra Barrow, the police officer who had a side job as a PSO? Philly.com checked in with her, and she’s doing okay, rebuilding her life and taking classes and blogging after being publicly outed and losing her job last year.

With a headline that unwittingly echoes some of Laura Agustin’s research, the South China Morning Post finds that women are using whatever paperwork and assets they can to travel, including student visas, paid for with sex work. You’ve been scooped, SCMP.

This article about the “call girls of Instagram” is actually a pretty good entry in the “sex workers use the internet!” genre. It allows the women room to talk, and though this article is essentially an extension of their marketing, they say a lot of great stuff.

Claire Hayward at the New Statesman argues against using a presentist lens when writing or talking about the past, including applying the label of “sex worker” to the people who traded sex throughout history. (Mentioned in the article is Harris’s List, which Charlotte wrote about a few years ago.)

After ten years as a stripper, Red quit with a bang, suing her longtime home club for sexual harassment, assault, and violating labor laws. Now a stay-at-home hooker and borderline dog hoarder, Red tries to balance running a street outreach project (strollpdx.org) with sex work and school to create a viable future outside the industry as an abortion provider and nurse practitioner working with low-income groups. Red loves dogs and hates men. Ask her about labor law any time you want!

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Gah! ESPLER has had their GoFundMe shut down, unsurprisingly — speaking of “their constitutional rights to privacy, freedom of association, and substantive due process right to earn a living” being violated…